


interbellum

by Azzandra



Series: it's the future, you see [1]
Category: Girl Genius (Webcomic)
Genre: Agatha is a grandma in this one, Alternate Universe, Future Fic, Gen, Implied OT3 and Resulting Kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 08:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15481713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azzandra/pseuds/Azzandra
Summary: Agatha Heterodyne was always going to go out with a bang.





	interbellum

 

 

_Of the Heterodyne's peace, they will tell you the following:_

_it lasted until it didn't;_

_it broke when we needed it most;_

_and it ended in this very spot._

 

-plaque at Agatha's Last Stand, added in 1976 to commemorate 25 years since the end of the Diesel Wars

 

* * *

Agatha checked her watch and tapped a finger against the handle of her cane as she waited, but it was quite clear by this point that none of her sons were going to be on time for this meeting. 

The first to arrive was William, as Agatha expected, but what she did not expect was the fact that he would arrive absolutely drenched and coldly furious. 

Anevka trailed after Will, grinning from ear to ear, and completely dry. Whether this was because Anevka's reflexes were much better than human ones, or because even Agatha's unruly grandchildren thought better than to drench a clank in water, Agatha didn't even want to guess. But she was quite sure that Nev and Vali had been the ones responsible for Will's condition. She'd seen them skulking down a corridor as she headed for the meeting, and heard their giggling.

The next to arrive was Theodor, who despite leaving squeaky wet footprints, was also bone dry. He took one look at Will, and then quietly took his seat, keeping a suspiciously straight face.

Will sat stiffly and quietly in his usual seat, hands clenched together on the tabletop so tightly his knuckles had gone white. After water began dripping from him all over the furniture, he deigned to slick back his red hair so it was out of his face, but when Anevka offered him a dry handkerchief, he looked like his barely-contained rage was going to explode.

They were saved from the outburst by Adam appearing through the door, his movements subdued, and deep shadows under his eyes. Agatha's lips pursed in disapproval at this state. Running himself ragged again, just like his father used to do. She was hardly surprised, but she still didn't like it.

Adam actually walked all the way to his seat, just across the table from Will, and sat down shuffling papers for a while before he noticed the tense silence in the room and looked around. His eyes fell on Will, and he seemed to be the only one who hadn't connected the dots yet.

"What happened to you?" Adam asked.

"Your devil children happened to me!" Will burst out, wringing water out of his hair for emphasis. "They're out of bloody control, Adam! We've talked about this!"

Adam seemed to wake up fully at his brother's outburst, and he recoiled indignantly.

Theodor, who was usually the one at the receiving end of his brothers' self-righteous rants, leaned back in his seat, sharing a look with Anevka sitting across from him. Anevka, for her part, merely rolled her eyes.

"My children are not the issue we're here to discuss," Adam retorted coldly. 

"And why not?" Will demanded, then he turned to Agatha, who was sitting at the head of the table. "Mother, if either one of them is going to inherit Mechanicsburg, they had better learn discipline and responsibility, and Adam is evidently not trying to impress any such thing upon them!"

"Hey now, maybe my kids will inherit Mechanicsburg," Theodor interjected. "You don't know."

"Go make some, then!" Will snapped, before turning back to Adam. "They are positively intolerable! What kind of Heterodynes are they going to make?"

"I happen to think they are quite amusing," the Castle piped in.

"Yes, that's what worries me!" Will said.

Agatha tapped her cane lightly against the floor, and the room fell silent as all eyes turned to her. Will seemed to have more ranting to do, but he swallowed down his next words, before he could say something to really enrage Adam.

"How about I have a talk with them?" Agatha suggested.

"Oh... No," Will said, blinking, "I didn't mean you had to--"

"Regardless," Agatha cut him off, like the matter was perfectly settled, "I think it's time the grandchildren and I caught up a bit. I'm looking forward to finding out what they've been learning in Skifander."

"Alright, if... if you insist," Will said, now calm enough that his voice didn't resonate with the Spark anymore. He had clearly not wanted to saddle Agatha with any new task, since he was also the one who was constantly telling her she needed to take it easier, but he was also uninclined to tell her she shouldn't talk to her own grandchildren.

"Now maybe we could get to the point of this meeting?" Anevka asked. "Why are we here, anyway?"

"I have no idea why you're here," Adam said, "since this a family meeting."

"Oh," Anevka's hand fluttered to her chest, as she looked at Adam with a delicately-feigned innocence, "and am I not part of this--"

"Heterodyne family meeting," Adam amended.

"And yet you have two Sturmvorauses here!" Anevka declared, putting her hands on Will's shoulders and leaning against him heavily and bumping her head against his. "Security really has not improved around here since the Castle was infiltrated last year, has it?"

"That was hardly an infiltration," Castle Heterodyne said in a huff. 

"And yet, here we are, around this table, still mopping up after that incident," Anevka remarked. "That is what this meeting is about, is it not?"

"It's--maybe related," Adam admitted begrudgingly. "It does concern certain technology which we, ah... Which someone has... possibly purloined and that we really don't want getting into the wrong hands--"

"They got the time crap from back in Mom's day, didn't they?" Theodor asked. He'd said it while idly contemplating the ceiling, but after the silence which descended over the room, he looked over and noticed Adam's averted eyes.

"They may have obtained the lantern," Adam said.

"Mom's lantern?" Theodor asked, in complete disbelief of the fact that his guess had been accurate. "The time lantern? That lantern?"

Adam set his papers aside and leaned against the table heavily. He looked uncharacteristically grim, a frown pulling at his features. He looked a lot like his father when he was serious, and he often joked that that was why he avoided being serious. But for once, he couldn't afford to put on a cheerful face.

"Yes, that lantern," he said, and everybody around the table looked to Agatha for confirmation.

"It was supposed to be transported to Castle Wulfenbach this week," she said. "Nobody had any idea that it was even gone until a few days ago."

"Castle Wulfenbach had a fit, of course," Adam muttered. "It put Dad in a mood as well."

"And you've been trying to track it down ever since," Will surmised. "By the fact that we're all here, I'm guessing you failed!"

"Will," Agatha said softly, and Will looked immediately abashed. It wasn't often his behavior warranted rebuke, but this was neither the time nor the place to hash out personal disagreements with his brother. 

So, taking on a more business-like tone, he cleared his throat, dabbing at his still-wet face with the handkerchief Anevka had handed him.

"It's hardly the kind of thing that comes with an instruction manual," Will said, turning to analysis. "Even if they're Sparks, even if they researched the technology, they'll have to study it out before they use it. If the thieves aren't Sparks, then figuring it out will be exponentially harder."

"Anyone with the resources to rob Castle Heterodyne is obviously going to have some Sparks in their employ," Theodor pointed out. "Possibly having some Sparks working for them is how they got the thing in the first place!"

Will nodded along, his face screwed up in thought.

"Do we have any indication that this theft has anything to do with the break-in last year?" Will asked.

"Excellent question," Anevka said. "Did they get it then, and nobody noticed until now, or are we now going to have to get used to Castle Heterodyne's new calling as a sieve, for all the things that slip past it?"

"I will have you know," Castle Heterodyne interjected huffily, "that after the unfortunate incident last year, my internal sensors were overhauled to counteract the technology they used!"

"We did have an inventory," Adam said, taking out a few papers from the stack before him. "Just a few months ago. But the lantern was counted as still in the vaults back then."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense, darling," Anevka said. "Which is it, another break-in, or is someone running inventory with a terminal case of double-face syndrome?" She dragged her fingers down along the edge of the coat, where they all knew she kept a few small, hidden blades.

"The person who ran inventory was a local," Adam said. "And above suspicion."

"Tch, all that trust for your little townsfolk," Anevka said, patting her wig. She was trying very hard to act dismissive, though everyone knew her well enough to recognize the worry she was trying to hide.

"That trust is justified," Adam replied, his voice brittle.

"Nobody in Mechanicsburg has the balls to betray Mom," Theodor scoffed. "Come on, they practically worship the ground she walks on."

Will didn't say anything, but his eyes darted to Agatha, who seemed absorbed in checking her pocketwatch.

"Mother?" he said gently, and this seemed to startle her out of her reverie.

"We can't discount any suspects at this point," Agatha said curtly, and both Adam and Theodor turned to her in surprise. "But right now we are still running down leads."

This information seemed to take Adam by surprise. No doubt he thought he was the one in charge of running down those leads, and now he discovered that Agatha might have put out some feelers of their own. Adam wasn't any happier than Will was about his mother overworking herself at her age, but he didn't say as much. Her help was too valuable to turn down, especially in this case.

"Let's go over everything we have, for now," Adam said, and called the meeting to order.

* * *

Agatha didn't have a very difficult time finding her grandsons. She could have asked Castle Heterodyne to locate them, but really, she just followed the sound of giggling.

"Your uncle is furious with you," she announced as she approached them from behind, causing the two boys to nearly jump out of their skin and whirl around with guilty looks on their faces.

They likely wondered how an old woman who used a cane managed to sneak up on them. Good. Let them wonder. She still had a few tricks up her sleeves.

She folded her hands over the handle of her cane, and looked down on them. Valetudo and Anevko Heterodyne, aged ten and eight, were not precisely cowed, but they were very good at feigning their best behavior.

"Oh, no, is Uncle Theo upset about his shoes?" Vali asked innocently. "We did warn him about the puddle."

"Um, I think she means Uncle Will--" Nev started, before a sharp elbow jab from his brother cut him off. "Ow, what--" Another jab.

Agatha tapped her cane against the floor, and the two boys fell silent, looking up at her with doe-eyed expressions that belied their true capacity for mischief. Skifander had at least taught them to respect their female elders, if not anyone else in the family.

"Did Castle Heterodyne help with your prank?" Agatha asked.

"No, Mistress!" Castle Heterodyne interjected. "They managed that particular piece of mayhem all by themselves, heh heh!"

"Hmm..." Agatha regarded the two boys silently, and they stood at attention as she did. They were precious little children at first glance; despite the fact that they'd been running around the Castle all day playing, they were still somewhat presentable in their charcoal and teal-colored suits. Only on a closer inspection one noticed that Vali had water-soaked socks, and Nev had apparently crammed a great deal of multi-colored chalk in one of his suit pockets, leaving marks over the fabric.

As the inspection dragged on, however, it was clear that they stuggled to keep up the act of well-behaved little poppets. Vali rubbed his shoe against the back of his calf, leaving dirt streaks, and Nev worried at his pocketful of chalk, and they both squirmed like they were ready to bolt.

Agatha cracked a smile at them, and they took that as a cue to grin back.

"So, what have you two discovered while exploring today?" Agatha asked, leaning down closer and lowering her voice.

"Battle armor!" Nev declared, throwing his arms up in the air.

"There's a room that's like a chessboard," Vali told her, more sedate than Nev, but still talking quickly with excitement. "Only some squares are actually traps! And there's clanks that look like chess pieces only with lots and lots of spikes and scary weapons and stuff."

"That sounds vaguely familiar," Agatha said, dredging the room up from her memory of the first time she had to repair the Castle. She hadn't been back to that room since she became the Heterodyne, if she wasn't missing her guess. Castle Heterodyne was a big place.

"Alexandros Heterodyne's Game Room," Castle Heterodyne supplied. "He had quite the passion for chess, but believed the game could do with a bit more spicing up."

"A horse tried to kill us with a flail!" Nev declared, indeed looking excited about the entire thing.

Vali elbowed his brother again.

"We were marking the traps," Vali explained, "with chalk. Uncle Theo got us a whole bunch so we could draw, but it's been real useful for exploring, too."

"I see how it would be," Agatha said. "Castle Heterodyne doesn't believe in training wheels."

"I'd hardly let them get damaged too much," the Castle said.  "The line must be preserved, after all. And since William's bloodline has been ceded to Sturmhalten, and Theodor's relentless tomcatting has yet to produce results, these two fine young men are the best prospects for the future."

"What's tomcatting?" Nev asked, as he absent-mindedly brought a piece of chalk to his mouth and then licked it.

"It's how all the ladies that Uncle Theo knows are really happy to see him at first, and then they say they'll shoot him," Vali replied very seriously. He took Agatha's hand, looking up at her hopefully. "Grandma, do you wanna see the chess room? It's not far!"

"I'd love to," Agatha said, smiling down at them. "And I'd love to have a talk with you boys about what you've been doing lately."

"Okay!" the boys said at the same time, and then Vali tugged her by the hand down a hallway.

Agatha went, though not before distractedly checking her watch.

* * *

Theodor was just about to give up snooping and straight up ask Castle Heterodyne where his mother was, when he finally found her.

Nev and Vali's voices were loud and cheerful as they rang down the hall, and in a much lower register, Theodor caught his mother's own voice joining them. He was hardly surprised. Her schedule was always so full, that she had to block out time to be a doting grandmother. And she hadn't had as much opportunity even for this when the boys were off to Skifander.

He walked into the room just in time to almost get his head knocked off his body by a flail.

"Hello, that's not child friendly!" Theodor said, as he dodged out of the way and slipped out of an angry anthropomorphic horse's range.

"Well, not from where you're standing!" Vali told him in a huff.

Indeed, Vali, Nev and their grandmother were perfectly unmolested by the disturbingly well-muscled horse clank that had nearly taken Theodor's head off. They were standing within a traced pink chalk outline some way into the room.

"We marked the squares with no traps!" Nev said, waving a handful of chalk sticks. 

Well, at least they got some use out of it, Theodor thought. When he was their age, he'd actually broken through already, and doing much less advisable things with chalk. There was some grafitti somewhere that Castle Heterodyne still grumbled about to this day.

"Fun day at the Castle, boys?" Theodor asked, carefully stepping only on squares that were marked as safe.

"It's always fun here," Vali said. "I want to live here when I grow up!"

"Oh, you don't have to wait that long," Agatha said. "You boys can move into the Castle whenever you want."

They turned to their grandmother, wide-eyed and hopeful. So far, partly because of their mother's insistence, the boys had only ever experienced the Castle as Grandma's house where they could occasionally visit or spend vacations. Their mother thought it was not a very child-appropriate environment, and really only allowed them to even visit Skifander because she thought it would counteract Mechanicsburg's bad influences.

"Rima's going to have some things to say about that," Theodor muttered, because Adam's former wife had a lot of things to say about a lot of things. She had particularly stinging things to say about Adam's feckless brother as well, and by 'feckless' she sure didn't mean the brother acting as princeling in Sturmhalten. Theodor had been at the sharp end of her tongue more than once, and arguably more than he thought he deserved

"We're going to be the Heterodynes when we're older," Vali said in reply, "so that means we should get used to living here!"

"Usually there's only one Lord Heterodyne at a time," Theodor pointed out.

"Then we'll switch every other week," Vali continued, undaunted, "so we'll both be the Heterodyne, just not at the same time."

"Hoo boy," Theodor said under his breath, before looking to his mother. "Mom, are you hearing this?"

"I think it's an interesting approach," Agatha said, looking at them fondly.

"You want to move them into the Castle," Theodor repeated incredulously. He felt like he was not the appropriate person to be having this conversation with her. Will would no doubt be rattling off pros and cons at a mile a minute, and Adam--well, he was supposed to be the Heterodyne after her, wasn't he? And they were his kids to sort out. This was Adam's mess and he was the one who should have rightfully dealt with it.

Oh, but no, here it fell to poor, maligned Theodor to talk sense into his elderly mother who had always had the lion's share of sense in the Heterodyne line and had still needed to be reined in on occasion by two consorts, a seneschal, and a veritable coterie of minions, friends and road buddies.

"Mechanicsburg is still the most well-defended place in Europa," Agatha said. "And Castle Heterodyne would do anything to defend the boys."

"From what?" Theodor asked, feeling a chill down his back. The meeting earlier that day had been serious, and had brought up some profoundly concerning things, but it still had not left him with as much of a bad feeling as this conversation was doing right now. "What do they need to be protected from?"

Agatha looked at him almost sadly in response.

"It's a dangerous world out there, Theodor," she said, and patted his cheek. "You know that. You've always had very good instincts."

He frowned at her, not sure he was getting the whole story, but she had already broken off, and she turned to her grandchildren again.

"Vali, Nev, why don't you ask your uncle to show you the places in town where he used to get in trouble when he was your age?" Agatha asked.

The two boys cheered and hopped in place, and then they latched onto Theodor, giving him adorable, eager looks.

"I bet you know the best places," Vali said with utmost confidence.

"Well, yes, of course," Theodor said, taken aback for a moment, before he looked at his mother. "Ah... Mom, are you leaving?"

"I just need to get to the Timestop Gate," Agatha said, consulting her pocketwatch. "Empire business."

"Mom, you know what they keep telling you about taking it easy--"

"I'll walk slowly, then," she said. After a moment's deliberation, she took Theodor's hand and squeezed it. "Enjoy your time with the children. And you two!" She looked at Vali and Nev this time. "Have fun while you still can, but don't do anything you wouldn't want your mother to hear about."

"Yes, Grandma," the boys chorused.

* * *

The screen didn't show anything except for a straight horizontal line, but the flashing red bulb on the side of the terminal indicated the connection was made.

Adam leaned back in his chair at the terminal.

"I assume your meeting has ended," came the terse voice of Castle Wulfenbach, and the horizontal line wavered and spiked in time with the sounds.

"Such as it was," Adam said, rubbing his eyes. "I understand the family needed to be informed about this breach in security, but I wish we'd had more to give them."

"Master, is that Castle Wulfenbach on the line?" Castle Heterodyne interjected, and by the gleeful sound of his voice, he clearly knew that it was, indeed, Castle Wulfenbach. "How are you, you old bird?"

"I'm fine, you old spook," Castle Wulfenbach replied. "But you have your own line if you want to talk. We're trying to discuss Empire business right now."

"That line only works if you're in range, and you know it," Castle Heterodyne muttered. "Where are you gallivanting off to, anyway?"

"I was just getting to that," Castle Wulfenbach replied, "if you'll allow me to talk to Lord Heterodyne and eavesdrop quietly."

"Fine, fine," Castle Heterodyne grumbled.

"As I was saying," Castle Wulfenbach said, "we extended the armada as far as we could across the Empire, running every scan we possibly could. You are correct, in that Lady Heterodyne's lantern does emit some very distinct, impossible to disguise energy signatures. The issue is that we cannot find those signatures anywhere but where the lantern was documented to have been used in the past."

"So, Mechanicsburg probably lights your scans up like a festival on main street," Anevka interjected.

Castle Wulfenbach was quiet for a few moments, the screen once again reverting to an unmoving straight line which managed to convey its surprise and dismay quite expressively regardless.

"Was that Anevka Sturmvoraus?" Castle Wulfenbach asked after its long pause. "Is there anyone else who would like to jump into the conversation? Would other members of the audience like to participate, perhaps?"

"It's just her," Adam said tiredly, giving Anevka a quelling look. She was hopped up on the desk, leaning an elbow over the terminal's top and grinning effusively at him. She had promised to be on her best behavior while he made the call, but he saw now that he should have extracted a promise to be silent instead.

"So tetchy!" Anevka said. "And here I was trying to help."

"Please do," Castle Wulfenbach said heavily. "What is to be your invaluable contribution to this conversation?"

"Only that it's very clever of them, isn't it?" she said. "Not to mention bold, hiding a Heterodyne artifact right under the noses of all these Heterodynes."

"You're suggesting the lantern is still in Mechanicsburg," Adam said.

"And if you had taken a nap lately," Anevka said, poking his forehead with a finger, "maybe it would have occurred to you too! But it seems I must be the one doing all the thinking for _two_ families now!"

"The new signatures would be hidden by the old one the lantern made when the town got unstuck," Adam continued, no longer paying attention to Anevka as he fell into a fugue. "That covers the entirety of Mechanicsburg, so they could be anywhere. Presumably they're hiding themselves from Castle Heterodyne's awareness the same way they did during the break in. And because of the dimensional bypass effect, the new signature would be indistinguishable from the old one, so... hm... There was a paper on dimensional resonance and temporal slicing just last year--"

"Doctor Havernaugh's theory of quantum bilging?" Castle Wulfenbach asked, as it probably consulted its archives just at that moment. "Yes, I see. She based it on your mother's early work with time--"

Adam and Castle Wulfenbach went back and forth for a while, trading suggestions and hammering out a possible approach until they were sure they had discovered a way of tracing the lantern. It was all terribly boring to Anevka, who preferred the exciting car chase aspects of conducting an investigation.

When the call was finally finished, and Castle Wulfenbach signed off, Adam slumped back in his seat. The last of his fugue drained away.

"If the lantern really is in Mechanicsburg," he said, either to Anevka or just thinking out loud, "we really have to reconsider the possibility of this being an inside job."

"I don't know why you ever dismissed that possibility in the first place, dear," Anevka said, adjusting her wig just so. It was a simple bob cut today, in typical bright red. "I do understand you're fond of your little townies and their little loyalty displays, but they've always made my skin crawl."

"They're not acting, they really are that loyal," Adam said. "And you don't have skin, anyway."

"Do too!" Anevka argued. "I'm growing it in a vat in Sturmhalten. William suggested I might want it one day, so I am making myself a flesh suit!"

"I..." Adam blinked, as he tackled that mental image. "I don't think Will said to make yourself a flesh suit."

"Not in so many words, naturally," Anevka rolled her eyes, "but I have become quite good in extracting value from the meandering remarks of all my nephews. Luckily for you."

"Yes, thank you," Adam said, rising to his feet. "Your help is invaluable, Auntie."

"Hm, well. Yes. Though you haven't done anything to repay me for the last big favor I've done you!" Anevka clapped her hands together, grinning at him.

"Which was that?" Adam asked sedately.

"Why, when I seduced your wife away! Are you not so much happier now with that sham marriage behind you? Now you could find a nice boy and settle down!"

"I was settled down," Adam pointed out tiredly, and not for the first time

"You were miserable, is what you were," Anevka said with a huff. "And so was Rima. Now that you've put that nasty business behind you, and you're both respectably divorced, you can finally enjoy what's left of your youth."

"I'll keep that suggestion in mind," Adam said, and Anevka made an exasperated sound. "Right now, though, we have a dangerous artifact to track down. If you don't mind."

"I suppose," Anevka sighed, "that we should ensure the continued existence of the world as we know it before we do anything else." She didn't sound particularly excited by the prospect.

"So glad you agree, Auntie," Adam drawled. 

"Maybe we'll find you a nice boy along the way," she said wistfully.

"Auntie..."

"Well, fine, if you don't like him, I'll take him."

* * *

Will had never precisely disliked Mechanicsburg, but he had always felt more at ease in Sturmhalten. It was entirely fortunate for him that his father had had him in mind to inherit the place and continue the Sturmvoraus lineage.

That being said, he had grown up in Mechanicsburg, and he would always have something of a fondness for it and its quirks. After changing into something dry, he was happy to visit some of his old favorite places, just to soothe his own mind. He made his round of Castle Heterodyne, stopping in at the library to browse any new additions, and then by his family's labs to see how their latest projects progressed. 

He found it helpful; he could occasionally gauge his family's states of mind from the state of their latest fixations. Mostly it was as he expected. Theodor's lab was a mess, of course. Adam's lab was strewn with things he'd built while running to and fro across the Empire, putting out fires and maintaining the Heterodyne's Peace. Their fathers' labs were quiet and locked up while they were away from Mechanicsburg. Surprisingly, however, so were Mother's labs. It seemed she was on a research binge, so he looked forward to whatever she was going to produce once she reached the experimentation stage of the cycle.

Will fortunately managed to avoid any other run-in with his nephews. Auntie Anevka had disappeared while he was changing, and by now could be halfway to Paris if the whim had taken her, so he didn't even try to track her down. He instead took to Mechanicsburg by foot, enjoying the nice evening breeze as he let his thoughts wander. Sometimes, if he concentrated too hard on a problem, his mind would muddle up instead of solving it, so he found it useful to think about other things when he had a real conundrum before him.

He walked through town deep in thought, letting his feet lead him where they may. Faces lit up in recognition wherever Mechanicsburgers saw him. He heard more than one call of, "oh look, it's Tarvek's boy!", which he rather thought was an undignified thing to endure at his age, but he was smart enough to know not to argue.

The people here still referred to him as the "Sturmvoraus Heterodyne", despite the fact that he had only ever had the Sturmvoraus name to begin with. To Mechanicsburgers, he might have been Tarvek's son, but he was Agatha's offspring as well, and that always did seem to take precedence with them.

Will looked up to notice that he had somehow ended up in front of the Sausage Factory. A predictable outcome, now that he thought about it. His father would take him here sometimes when Castle Heterodyne got too much for him, and they would spend a few hours talking, eating pastries, and avoiding whatever had gotten on Will's last nerve. 

Sometimes it was the family. Adam and Theodor were a lot rowdier, and Poppa Gil always let them run wild. Will rather suspected it was where Adam had learned his lackadaisical approach to parenting. Nev and Vali never acted like rampaging Visigoths whenever Rima was around, that was for sure.

And Theodor was perhaps the worst about egging them on. With Adam as the next Lord Heterodyne, and Will up in Sturmhalten, Theodor had managed to sidestep any kind of responsibility, and instead became an insufferable adventurer with no care for anything but himself and the string of women that he managed to charm and then annoy in rapid succession.

Making his decision, Will slipped into the cafe, and immediately spotted Vanamonde in a corner. The old man's glasses were perched nearly on the tip of his nose as he read a newspaper in his usual booth. The cup of coffee before him was still steaming.

Will slipped in across from Vanamonde. This, in many ways, was where he'd learned the finer points of running a town. Tarvek had done all he could to instill the norms of royal conduct in his heir, but Will had always liked the hands-on approach of the seneschal, and had learned some things that being royalty didn't teach you about governance.

Now Vanamonde was old, retired, and long since replaced by his son, who could more easily keep up with Adam and Agatha both. But it was hardly surprising to find him in his old nest at the cafe, still keeping an ear out.

Will slipped into the booth, in the seat across from him.

"Anything interesting?" Will asked.

"If you mean this rag," Vanamonde replied, without taking his eyes up from the newspaper, "then no. Journalistic standards are still inadequate to the task of keeping journalists from being pricks. If you mean the rest of town, then..." Vanamonde grinned, his expression twisting into something devious. "...How would I know? I'm just a poor, decrepit old man, gumming at my pastries."

"Of course, of course," Will said. "And your hearing isn't what it used to be either, I'm guessing? People could be saying all manner of things around you, and you'd barely even know."

"Precisely," Vanamonde said gravely, and then folded up his newspaper, putting it aside. "How are things in Sturmhalten, Your Majesty?"

"Vanamonde, come off it," Will said, and rolled his eyes. He never used to be an eye-rolling child, but he'd picked up all manner of bad habits from Auntie Anevka. "To be honest, I'm more concerned about how things are going in Mechanicsburg. How long since Mother stepped out of town?"

"A while," Vanamonde said, "but that's not hardly a new development. She's slowed down a lot since Adam began taking on more responsibilities. She spends more time on her personal projects. Or with the grandkids."

"Father wants to know if she'll consider coming up to Sturmhalten to stay," Will said.

"Er. Sturmhalten. Hm." Vanamonde's lips pursed like he wasn't sure what to say about this. "I suppose he hasn't asked her yet."

"He thinks Sturmhalten brings up bad memories for her, so he doesn't want to ask," Will said. He'd gotten used to his parents being vague about how they'd met, despite the story being a staple of trashy roadshows from here to England. 

But his father had really only idly wondered about whether she'd come. In his old age, he'd become more fond of Sturmhalten, and she had always been fond of Mechanicsburg to begin with. Since all their children grew up, Mother, Father and Poppa Gil did not so much live together as organize elaborate visitation schedules between Mechanicsburg, Castle Wulfenbach, and any other location where they could snatch a few days or weeks together.

Now, in their old age, they seemed to have settled in a comfortable pattern that they had looped the rest of the family into, and when they were not together, each seemed content with keeping to their respective domains. 

So, most recently, Will had become used to finding his mother in Mechanicsburg, working on her experiments and helping Adam maintain the Heterodyne's Peace; his father in Sturmhalten, working on his own little projects and advising Will; and Gil on Castle Wulfenbach, usually bickering with it. 

Will wasn't completely clear on why Grandpa Klaus had uploaded his consciousness into an airship, except that Gil seemed to enjoy being constantly at odds with it for some reason. Will hoped becoming this weird with age was exclusively a Wulfenbach trait, though considering some of the things that might fall out if one shook the Sturmvoraus family tree too hard, at least this was a fairly mild thing that Adam and Theodor would have to worry about.

Vanamonde took a sip of his coffee as he mulled over what Will had just said.

"She's been handing off a lot of responsibility to Adam," Vanamonde said after a time. "Maybe you could persuade her to go on a long vacation. She's been to Sturmhalten plenty of times, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. You could talk to her about it."

Then he gestured with his cup of coffee towards the cafe's large front windows. Will turned to look, and spotted his mother right outside, talking with someone.

"Ah, thank you," Will said distractedly, and rose from his seat.

Mother probably noticed him, because she broke off from the conversation she was having with a Mechanicsburger that Will vaguely recognized, and she turned to Will instead, smiling.

"Would you like to go for a ride?" she asked, and gestured to the open carriage she was standing next to.

"Ah... certainly," Will said, now curious about where this was going. Mother had never been one for idle rides through town. He assumed they must be going somewhere.

The carriage had no driver, instead having a panel for automated steerage, but Will didn't see what Mother input as the destination. She waved at him to sit down as she cranked the lever to start the carriage, and then she sat down across from him, hands folded over the handle of her cane.

"I hoped to catch you for a talk after the meeting, but it seemed like you'd prefer a change of clothes first," she said. 

"Is this about the lantern?" Will asked, attention focusing on her as Mechancisburg whizzed past them.

"This is about the future," she said. "This might be hard to believe, but I am getting old."

"Mother, please," Will shook his head, "you're going to bury us all."

It seemed just a bit unbelievable that any of his parents would die anytime soon. His father seemed to have gotten his second wind since he started spending more time at Sturmhalten and actually holding salons for the pleasure of socializing, instead of plying his covert work and politicking on the Empire's behalf. And Poppa Gil seemed to enjoy putting the fear of god into his designated successors, and vigorously arguing with them as an advisor instead of being the poor sod in charge.

As for his mother, well... She'd started using that cane lately, but just two days earlier, she'd forgotten and left it behind. Full of mischief as always, Theodor had picked it up, but instead of running to return it, he'd put a finger up to his lips to beckon silence from Will, and then he'd pried open an almost invisible seam on the cane, revealing some circuits beneath. Theodor had looked at the device with mounting confusion on his face, and then closed up the cane again and left it just where Mother had forgotten it.  Will hadn't been as indiscreet, but he knew the real purpose of the cane was probably not the obvious one.

Despite all their gestures towards retirement, all three of Will's parents were still in the game, as much as it was necessary, and Will had heard more than his fair share about how transitions of power were always vulnerable times for a regime. 

Sometimes Adam complained that they were going to hover forever, backseat-driving the next generations unto the next century, but Will was glad for the guidance. He did not concede that he was a 'worrywart', as Theodor accused. Will simply understood the advantages of the accumulated wisdom their parents shared.

"Will, please listen," Mother said, tapping her cane against the floor of the carriage to get his attention. "You're more than just the heir to a legacy."

"I know that," Will said, bewildered.

"We've tried to tell you as much growing up, but it is true," Mother continued, with more urgency. "You're not just the end result of a bloodline. You are your own person. You don't have to overthink everything, and you don't have to live up to anything that's come before. You were always trying to exceed our expectations when you were growing up, or at least what you assumed were our expectations. But since taking over Sturmhalten, you've been... happy."

"I wasn't _un_ happy to begin with," Will said, bewildered. "Mother, really, I never had anything to complain about."

"Regardless," she said, and patted his knee. "Sturmhalten suits you. And if that's all you want, then that is fine. It's not your job to hold the Empire together when we're gone. Your first responsibility will be to Sturmhalten, and that's fine."

Will found himself laughing nervously, unsure what was happening. Adam or Theodor likely would have caught on by now and had a quip ready, but Will was just confused by the turn in this conversation.

"I... do like Sturmhalten, but I--I don't resent my duties to the Empire either, I--"

"I know," Mother said, nodding. "You never shirk, and you never complain. But there's more to life than being the good child. How about this." She leaned closer, and her tone turned conspiratorial. "Disagree with your father over something."

"Wh.. what?" Will blinked. "I disagree with him all the time."

"You bring up 'alternate perspectives', and then the two of you talk it into the ground," Mother replied. "Just tell him his new coat is ugly, or something."

Will was utterly floored.

"Why would I do that?" he asked.

"Practice," she said, grinning as she leaned back. "You're going to come to a point in your life when you'll disagree with your fathers about something very important, and when that happens, you'll need to be confident in your position."

"What does this have to do with Sturmhalten or the Empire, though?" he asked.

"Because. You may be your father's son, but you're mine too," she said. "And I might have done my part for the Empire, but I always took care of my town first. I don't want you to think you ever need to sacrifice one for the other."

"And insulting Father's dress sense is going to help me become more independent?" He was still bewildered.

"Alright, not his clothing," Mother rolled her eyes. "But something. Maybe about ruling Sturmhalten. Run it how you'd like to, don't just do what he says all the time."

"I'll keep that in mind," Will said. "Where are we going, by the way?"

"Excellent question," she said, and consulted her pocketwatch. "The Timestop Gate."

The Timestop Gate? That was on the outer ring of the city. Gil had built it back when Mechanicsburg was still frozen in time. Will heard a lot growing up about the statues Gil had also erected there, but they'd been removed before he was even born, so now they lived on in infamy and relentless teasing between his fathers.

Will couldn't think what they'd be doing there, however. Nowadays, it was a perfectly ordinary gate, and primarily used for vehicle traffic, since it was one of the newer roads into the town and easily adapted to new modes of transport.

"Are we leaving Mechanicsburg?" he asked, not unreasonably.

"Going up to the ramparts, actually," Mother replied, the lid of her pocketwatch clicking closed.

"...For the view?" Will hazarded a guess.

"For the lantern."

Will sat upright in his seat, suddenly alert. 

"You know where the lantern is?" he asked, breathless. Oh, of course, _of course_ Mother knew where it was. She'd always been quicker on the uptake than all of them. "Should we call someone? Should we get a crew to come get it--"

"No," she said, in a tone that brooked no argument.

The carriage stopped, off to the side of the wall and near the gate. Mother pushed the door open, and climbed out with no difficulty, and in fact quite spry for her age. Will fumbled with the door a bit before he managed to hop out and trail after her.

"Mother, what's this about?" he asked, amid a rising sense of worry.

Instead of replying, she removed one of her little clanks from the pocket of her dress, and she wound it up. It split off into several thin legs, and latched around her waist, and before Will could even react, it began carrying his mother up the wall.

He had a moment of panic before he scrambled, as quickly as he could, for the nearest way up the wall. The gatehouse had its own spiraling staircase up to the ramparts, and he rushed for it, to the bemusement of the guards that he passed.

"Mother!" he yelled as he burst through the upper door and onto the ramparts.

She was turned away from him, looking outwards from the town. He didn't understand why--in fact, he almost had the irrational fear that she was going to jump--until he saw the shimmering lights in the air just above her.

"What is that?" he asked, as he walked up to her. 

Static in the air made the fine hairs on his arms stand up on ends, and as he watched, the shimmering seemed to coalesce into a large, expanding globe.

"This is where it started," Mother replied grimly, and finally turned to him.

Her cane had separated down the middle, revealing some device working inside, glowing blue-white. It whirred and clicked, the sounds of an overclocked system struggling to keep up with the demands put upon it.

Will felt a heavy dread in the pit of his stomach. He reached out to Mother, wanting to... pull her back, hold on to her, something, but she moved out of his reach and shook her head.

"What started here?" he asked, meeting her eyes.

It was now that he noticed the strange shimmering glow of the phenomenon just beyond the wall seemed to encompass his mother as well, like sheer fabric stretched in the air between them, visible only when it caught the light.

"There isn't much time left, Will," she said. "And the more I tell you, the less time I'll have remaining. This is where the war started--" And as she said this, the image of her seemed to flicker out of existence, just for a moment. 

If Will had blinked he would have missed it, but he saw it, he was sure! And the shimmer now intensified. The cane, or whatever device was within, clicked discordantly for a moment, before returning to its usual rhythm.

"In the original timeline, this is where you began losing Mechanicsburg," she continued, and this time instead of flickering, it was more of a slow fade. "But I figured it out. I timed it." Her hand that wasn't clenched around the cane was holding her pocketwatch. "I know how to save all of you, and Mechanicsburg too."

"Mother--" Will's voice pitched up in distress and he tried taking another step towards her, but this time it seemed the air itself was too dense to allow him passage. What seemed like a distance of a few paces instead stretched out into infinity as he tried to cross it.

"I'm not going to tell you everything is going to be okay," she said, "because how the next few years turn out will be up to all of you. I'm sorry I can't be there. I couldn't figure out..." She shook her head, looking sadder than he could ever remember her being. "I did everything I could to make sure you're more prepared this time around. You'll need Mechanicsburg to win."

Will didn't know what she was talking about, but he had the horrible sensation that he understood. And the more he thought on it, the faster she seemed to fade, so he tried not to. He tried to hang on to ignorance just a few moments longer.

"Momma," he called out, like he hadn't since he'd been ten years old. A lump in his throat stopped him from saying anything more.

She smiled at him, eyes full of tears.

"Will, remember to get along with your brothers," she said. "Even when they're being insufferable. Especially when they're being insufferable. Yes, even if it's all the time."

Will choked out a sob, or maybe a bitter laugh. He felt tears trail hot over his cheeks. 

"Now I'm going to have to go," she said, and inhaled sharply before her gaze turn steely. "And I... I leave you with this. If you want to know who instigated this, I... left notes in my lab. They're encrypted, but I know you'll figure it out--"

That was all she managed to say before the cane device made a sound like a car backfiring, and broke apart. The image of Mother faded and disappeared completely, and she was gone.

The shimmering globe compressed in the air, and then the air seemed to buzz, full of verve.

Will had only a few moments to react, and throw himself back and out of the way as the globe imploded on itself--though not before vanishing a chunk of the wall out of existence as well. 

He scurried back into the gatehouse, and barked orders at the guards to get out before the aftershocks of that phenomenon took down the entire gatehouse as well.

He stumbled away from the hole in the wall, unhurt but dazed. He was knelt on the street, dry-heaving as his eyes fixed on the cobblestone, when the rest of the family found him. Will didn't know how much time passed--time had taken on a surreal quality that he couldn't put down just to that temporal implosion he'd narrowly avoided--but he felt Adam's hand grab onto his shoulders and haul him onto his feet.

"Are you okay?" Adam asked, shaking him. "Will, are you okay?"

"No!" Will croaked out, wild-eyed and hyperventilating. "No!"

The next thing he knew, Adam had him clenched into the tightest hug Will had gotten since they were both children. They were both crying, just like when they were children.

That was Agatha Heterodyne's last stand, in the first volley of a war that would consume Europa for a decade.

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn't the fic that I started writing for this 'verse. In fact, I'd begun working on a... kind of modern-day Girl Genius fic that was OC-centric. But then I included a throwaway line that I thought demanded more explanation, so I ended up writing this as a little sidefic, and it grew into something... not quite little. And a lot sadder than I intended. Oops. Also part of the inspiration for writing this was the realization that there wasn't as much old!Agatha in fandom, after I wrote this [ drabble ](http://azzandra.tumblr.com/post/176191730266/for-you-prompt-meme-dimo-and-agatha-and-number-35#notes) in response to a prompt on tumblr (don't worry, this one is less depressing).
> 
> Klaus uploading his consciousness into Castle Wulfenbach, a la Faustus uploading it into Castle Heterodyne, was an idea I wanted to include after tanoraqui and brawltogethernow brought it up on the GG discord server. So thanks to them and the server for that hilarious and irresistible worldbuilding detail!


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